Session Buzz: Who’s Recording In & Around NYC — A Monthly Report

GREATER NYC AREA: Summer sessions were all over the map this year. Now – just a week into September – we take a look back at some of the later-summer recordings happening around town…

Just last week at East Side Sound in the Lower East Side, Irish rock band Preacher’s Son were in recording and mixing with engineer/producer Marc Urselli. The Preacher’s Son sessions at East Side Sound featured Dubliner Brian Hogan (from the band Kila) on bass, guitar and vocals, and NY-based session drummer and percussionist Kenny Wollesen (Tom Waits, Bill Frisell).

In East Williamsburg at Vacation Island Recording, Matt Boynton has been producing and engineering the new Black Dice record. Boynton’s also been recording with Zachary Cale, and working with Free Blood on their next album. He also tracked and mixed two songs for Tearist, and worked on an upcoming release with Golden Animals.

Recording engineer and drummer Christina Files was at Vacation Island tracking a new record for Talk Normal with Rob Laakso assisting. Laakso has also been plugging away with the studio’s new mastering facilities. 

Producer/engineer Nic Hard recently mixed a record for Brooklyn-based artist Jonathon Linaberry out of his new room at Limebeat Productions in Manhattan.

Says Hard…“It’s an old-timey country album and Jonathon had other mixers try it and did not feel they captured the authenticity he was looking for. I called in a friend who has a “portable” record lathe and bounced the individual tracks to vinyl and back into Pro Tools. Worked like a charm.”

Meanwhile in Midtown, Manhattan Transfer was recording vocals at Skyline Studios, with Janis Siegel producing and Rick Perez engineering… Horacio ‘El Negro’ Hernandez and Italuba were in recording percussion, horns, piano and vocals for an upcoming release, and Billy Paul and Chimene Badi recorded a vocal duet, produced by Yves El-Baze, and engineered by Rick Perez and Lionel Elmaleh. Perez also engineered sessions with Wayne Krantz (guitar), John Pattitucci (bass) and Charlie Drayton (drums) recording as a trio. And recently re-formed rock band Fuel is recording new material at Skyline, with engineer Argel Anaya.

Skyline has also hosted a few film sessions, including Janeane Garofalo recording voiceovers for the film Mojobuddy, Al Pacino (as Phil Spector) filming scenes for the HBO Phil Spector biopic, directed by David Mamet, and engineered by Jonathan Mover, and Julianne Moore and Alexander Skarsgard filming scenes for the film ‘What Maisie Knew’ – directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel.

Across the river at Rough Magic in Greenpoint, tracks were being laid down on Jean Grae’s “Cookies or Comas Mixtape” – hosted by DJ Drama – featuring production by Royce da 5′ 9″, Pharaoh Monch, DJ Drama, Styles P and Boogie Blind. Alby Cohen engineered. And Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet produced a remix for Malian desert-guitar band Tinariwen’s latest album featuring TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone. Listen to the track at Pitchfork.

Additionally at Rough Magic, Talib Kweli has been working on his upcoming solo record for Blacksmith / EMI with Alby Cohen engineering. The Brooklyn native rapper has been utilizing many of Rough Magic’s string and horn players for his sessions.

Back over in Midtown at Sear Sound, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski – co-hosts of Morning Joe on MSNBC – recorded tracks for the 9/11 tribute in N.Y.  Mika produced, Joe, sang and Sear Sound’s Chris Allen was the engineer. They also began work on Joe Scarborough’s own new album.

In other Sear sessions, producer Brian Deck and engineer Tom Schick worked on tracks for Iron & Wine, with arranger Rob Berger, Universal / Paris artist Laika recorded with Jay Newland engineering and co-producing with Gil Goldstein, Jac Holzman produced tracks for an upcoming Bob Dylan tribute, recording the group Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Stewart Lerman returned for ongoing music recording for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire.

Downtown, Germano Studios has been typically pop-star-studded, with Lady Gaga recording her next single – which she’s co-producing with Mutt Lange – in Studio 1 with Dave Russell engineering, singer/rapper K’naan writing and recording in both Studios 1 and 2 with Steve Jordan and Chuck Harmony producing, Dave O’Donnell, Ben Chang, Ryan West and Yohei Goto engineering, and Alicia Keys writing and recording with Ryan Leslie producing and Ann Mincieli engineering.

Steve Jordan was also in recording with his band The Verbs, with O’Donnell engineering.

Germano also hosted dobro master and singer/songwriter Jerry Douglas recording with Russ Titleman producing, rock singer Zander Bleck recording vocals with Mutt Lange producing, and Conor Maynard writing and recording with producer/songwriter Sandy Vee. Kevin Porter engineered all three sessions. Michael Buble also recently recorded a duet with Thalia at Germano, with Humberto Gatica producing/engineering.

And singer/songwriter Javier Colon (winner of NBC’s The Voice) was at Germano writing and recording with Chuck Harmony and Claude Kelly producing for an upcoming Universal Republic release.

Gaga was also recording up at Avatar Studios – in a duet with Tony Bennett for his upcoming Duets II album. The session was produced in Avatar’s Studio A by Phil Ramone, engineered by Dae Bennett, and assisted by Fernando Lodeiro and Tim Marchiafava. Tony Bennett also sang and recorded a duet with Intergalactic Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin in Studio C for the same project.

Also in Avatar Studio A, Jean Morrison recorded for her upcoming album with help from Nile Rodgers and Vernon Reid. Diego Paul produced the session and Hillary Johnson engineered, assisted by Charlie Kramsky.

And Detroit-borne jazz great Kenny Garrett recorded some transcendent new songs (SonicScoop received a special preview – story to come) in Studio C with producer Donald Brown and engineer Todd Whitelock.

The Gaddabouts returned to Avatar to record with producers Steve Gadd and Edie Brickell, engineered by Andy Smith. And Studios A and G were rocking with the bluesy jams of The Zak Smith Band, recorded by producer Zak Smith, engineer Milan Sudzuk assisted by Aki Nishimura.

Evanescence also recorded at Avatar recently, with Nick Raskulinecz producing, and Scarlett Johansson recorded vocals for a Dean Martin project, with producer/engineer Eric Rosse.

Over at The Spot Mastering in Brooklyn Heights, Greg Vaughn has recently mastered Princess Superstar’s new album, The New Evolution, and Kiko Navarro “A Long Hot Summer” for King Street Sounds. Vaughn also just cut the vinyl masters for an album he mastered in February for Brooklyn-based psych-rock outfit, Artanker Convoy.

And we know there’s so much more going on out there! If you’d like to be featured in “Session Buzz,” please submit your studio news to submissions@sonicscoop.com.

All Hands Electric: A Brooklyn Artist Collective & Modern Musical Co-Op

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN: An artists collective and record label inspired by other artist-run labels, All Hands Electric encompasses the multiple projects of its all-Brooklyn-based artist-founders: singer/songwriter and musician Zachary Cale (Solo, Illuminations, Rope, Prudence Teacup), dance-punk musician and painter Peter La Bier (Psychobuildings), singer/composer and graphic artist Alfra Martini (Prudence Teacup) and drummer, visual artist and recording engineer Ryan Johnson (Illuminations).

In the spirit of the DIY punk labels of the 80s, the founders of All Hands Electric set out not only to release their own records, but also to develop a collective approach to producing, distributing and touring behind the records.

“We were excited about creating our own context for what we were doing,” explains Cale. “There was all this great music being made just in our circle of friends and we thought why wait around for somebody else to catch onto what we’re doing, why not just start our own label?”

It’s a question every artist and many producer/engineers, studio owners and music houses have asked themselves: why not just start your own label?

We spoke to Cale about where the group efforts have been well worth it for the All Hands Electric artists.

What’s the thinking behind All Hands Electric and why did it make sense for you and your colleagues to come together in this way now?

All Hands Electric was born out of necessity, as there was so much fantastic music being made just in our circle of friends and none of us were on a label. So we set about creating our own platform, pooling our different talents and resources and it quickly took on a life of its own. I think it is easy to underestimate just how important community is for artists.  It is healthy to be around people who will challenge you as well as inspire you. As a group effort we also felt it might make it easier to cut through — if we could create a collective context for our music it would stand out in its own way.

Besides getting your friends/colleagues together to form the collective, what was involved in getting started?

Starting a label is actually simpler than what most people imagine. There really are no rules! Basically, we just needed to get some money together, collectively, to get that first release out. And then the second and so on…

As a true collective, we share and interchange our responsibilities. In the most general of terms I serve as the label’s main contact. I communicate with stores, distributors, and I handle the mail orders. Ryan and I both oversee production and maintain contacts with the vinyl, CD, and mastering people.

As visual artists we all contribute to the look of the label. Ryan created the logo, and directs most of the visual content, but both Alfra and Peter have contributed artwork to the label as well. Alfra designed and manages the website and blog. We all write copy and press releases. The technical stuff we learn as we go along. We all work at contacting the press (blogs, radio, mags…). It’s all quite evenly distributed.

And I see you guys are releasing vinyl LPs and 7”s. Is vinyl an essential piece of the All Hands Electric mission?

Yes, we’re all fans of the medium. When we were setting up, I’d already been a big vinyl fan for many years; I couldn’t even remember when I’d last bought a CD. From an artistic perspective too, I’d always wanted to release records on vinyl — the physical medium is more fun to work with.

Before we started All Hands Electric we did some research on where we should be pressing our vinyl and how. I think the perception is that pressing records is a lot more expensive than pressing CDs, but that’s not really true if you know where to go and what to spend money on.

Do you work with consistent facilities to master and press your vinyl?

Yes, we started off pressing vinyl with Brooklyn Phono. They’re really great and affordable and they do high quality vinyl — not the heaviest 180-gram vinyl, but the standard weight. It’s some of the best quality I’ve found of anywhere on the East Coast. We’ve worked with them quite a bit, but there are other companies out there too that are worth looking into. It takes trial and error to figure out what’s going to work best for you.

Brooklyn Phono doesn’t do 7″s, so for our recent 7” releases we went to another Brooklyn plant, EKS. Going into these places, I’m so surprised with how insanely busy they are with pressing vinyl. They can barely keep up with the amount of orders they’re getting.

How about on the mastering side? Who do you use for vinyl mastering?

We’ve gone to Paul Gold at Salt Mastering [in Greenpoint, Brooklyn]. He’s very vinyl minded. And I’d worked with both Paul Gold and Brooklyn Phono before, on a record I released in ’05 through another Brooklyn independent label, New World of Sound, run by my friend John Allen. I learned a lot about the New York underground through his label, which planted the seed to start something with my friends later on.

How about distribution — how complicated has it been to get that going?

Well, we really had no idea about how to get records into stores. It took awhile to find distributors and figure out how it all works. We’ve been fortunate to get help from outside sources, like Matador Direct, which is the domestic distribution wing of Matador, 4AD, Beggars Banquet. They also help out other smaller American labels with distribution, and they’ve worked with us to get a few of our releases into stores.

Pretty much everything we’ve released up to this point has been by the people who started the label, but now that we understand how to run this as a business, we’re excited to work with some artists outside of our circle. It’s taken a lot of time and work to get there.

Yeah, I bet! And at the same time you’ve also been producing a new album. That right?

Yes, I just recently mastered my next full-length and now I’m working on figuring out when to release it. This will be my second record on All Hands Electric, unless I put it out with another label. I think it’s good to release albums with different labels — it opens the audience for a band or performer. Also, that would allow us to bring other new acts into All Hands Electric.

What do you do to cultivate and promote the collective? Do you do All Hands Electric showcases?

Yes, and we’d really like to do more. There hasn’t always been a live act attached to the records we’ve released and in some of those cases, we’ve actually formed bands through the making of the record. The Prudence Teacup album we just released, for example: Alfra Martini is the singer and composer, and she recorded it herself.

The album, Where All the Little Songs Go When They Die, was created purely as a recording project, so originally there was no plan to perform the music live. But in releasing this record, we decided to put a band together for a record release show. And in doing so, we got some other shows and then we got on a short tour, opening for Rasputina. We’d only ever played the record release show and next thing we knew, we were on the road with Rasputina!

So the band is born in the studio.

That’s how it worked out in that case. And now we’ll probably make another Prudence Teacup album with the full band. It was exciting pulling it together so quickly — finding the right people and being able to go out on tour right as the album came out.

As far as recording, is there any particular methodology to how All Hands Electric produces records?

Well, we’re all definitely into the home studio idea. I think almost every one of our albums has been recorded either in a home studio, or in our rehearsal/recording studio, which is in the basement of my house.

We record to a TEAC 80 8-track 1/2″ tape machine that we bought for the very first All Hands Electric release by Illuminations, a band I sing and play guitar in. For that album, we recorded the basic tracks on tape and then transferred into a digital format and did the overdubs and mixing on Pro Tools with Josh Clark at Seaside Lounge Recording in Park Slope. In doing that record, Josh and I became friends and went onto collaborate on his project, Rope. All Hands Electric recently put out Rope’s first 7” single.

And how about your new record? Was that recorded in your home studio?

Yes, we did it down in the rehearsal space, tracking basics and a lot of the singing live to tape. Some of the songs are pretty stripped down in an old blues or folk kind of style — so I went for that raw, live sound — and some have bigger arrangements. So I took the analog tracks and dumped them into digital and mixed it at Vacation Island Recording [in Brooklyn] with Matt Boynton.

I like recording at home — you feel you have time to get it right without stressing out over the time/money you’re spending to get the best take. But the negative side to recording at home is that things can be more scattered and take a lot longer. When you book a room, everyone has to focus and get it done right then.

But having the rehearsal/recording space is great for the collective — it’s a resource that can be shared to record demos and basics.

Yeah and the farther we go along, it seems like a lot of the same people are playing on the records, and we kind of have a system now. For example on this new album I just finished, I brought in artists from the collective to play and help arrange the songs. And now Josh Clark is playing drums with me live, and I’m playing guitar with Rope.

Cool. Does All Hands Electric have a particular style or sound?

We don’t really have an identity as far as sound — we’re not really following any one trend. If anything we have an ear for American tradition, be it folk or punk, pop or rock, but it’s not so much that it can be considered “our sound.”

Prudence Teacup is experimental-pop with old cabaret influences mixed with some Brian Eno experimental sound sculpting. And we just released a single by Psychobuildings, which is Peter La Bier’s new dance-punk project. That’s again different than anything else we’ve put out and it’s doing really well — he just played at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.

So the Rope, Psychobuildings and Prudence Teacup are your latest releases and what’s next, your record?

Mine probably won’t be coming out until the Fall, but we’re planning on releasing a 7” single a month or two before the album comes out with the A side as a track from the album and the B side as an album outtake. It’s a good idea to calculate your release schedule. Our first year of releases, we had no idea what worked, and we released everything at the tail end of the year not realizing that everyone in the music press would be so preoccupied with their “End of the Year” lists. I think those records got a little forgotten because of when we put them out. You have to be strategic about it.

Anything else you’ve learned to take into consideration?

It’s a good idea to have MP3 codes in your vinyl releases. Also the blogs are a good resource to help generate interest, so you have to work with them.  Sending out songs ahead of time before you release your record is key if you want people to catch on and look for the album’s release. There’s some science to it, plus a lot of trial and error. Two years into having the label, things are making a lot more sense!

For more on All Hands Electric, visit www.allhandselectric.com.